Endeavors of hacks, howtos, and destruction

I’ve been playing around with some ideas for an Arduino/Netduino robot control system the past few months. I knew that I wanted to be able to control my robots from an Android phone, PC, or any other WiFi enabled device. I also knew that I wanted the system to be small and simplistic, but also powerful and extensible. The reason I went with an Arduino (Ethernet Pro) or a Netduino Plus for the controller was the low cost, ease of programming, and the embedded ethernet port. I coupled the onboard ethernet with a wireless router so that I could connect and transmit data to the robot wirelessly. Here are the results of our first robot build with this system. The robot was affectionately named Mantis.

In this episode we show how to build your own open source robot control system using IPGamepad and other open source software we’ve written. Make sure to visit the project page at ipgamepad.googlecode.com. We also show off our latest robot called Mantis. By building the controls around a Netduino, the robot is extremely extensible and can receive commands from any WiFi enabled device.

A project write-up is on the way and should be hitting the site in the next few days. Until then, check out the Google Code page for all the details of the control system.

Here it is, folks. Just finished our latest and greatest robot project. We edited together a quick teaser video to show off a bit of what the robot (affectionately named “Mantis”) can do.

You should see a full blown episode in the next day or two of exactly how the control system works and how you can build your own! If you’ll be around the Detroit area at the end of the month, we will be showing off Mantis and a few other robots at Maker Faire Detroit! We will be located in the i3 Detroit hackerspace booth. Hope to see you all there!